Dancer DPS Rotation, Openers, and Abilities — Dawntrail 7.1

This page will cover the basic rotation for Dancer at level 100. At its core, Dancer revolves around dealing with its proc-based combo system, intelligent usage of its resource systems, and using its powerful Standard Step as often as possible. The job also boasts a plethora of raid buffs, both raid-wide and single target, that when used appropriately allow your party members to deal a devastating amount of damage.

It is important to take note that Dancer is effectively a support job. As far as DPS jobs are concerned, it offers the most healing support out of any of them. While it also does the least personal damage out of all of the three physical ranged jobs, the amount of damage it gives to the party through Technical Step, Closed Position, and Devilment is enough to make it a competitive choice in raid content.

The main gimmick of playing Dancer is their ability to "Partner" a party member and provide them with a massive amount of single target buffs. The single target buffs include Devilment and the shared buff portion of Standard Step that is granted by using the dance while under the effect of Closed Position. Due to the fact Dancer has the lowest personal damage out of all of the DPS jobs in the game, it is prudent you keep your raid buffs aligned with not only your Dance Partner, but also your party as a whole.

Who you decide to be your Dance Partner should be based on each individual job's rotation (some jobs are more bursty than others in buff windows and benefit more so than others), but also on a player's ability to perform well. While there is a generalized Dance Partner priority (we will discuss this later), it is important to Partner a player who is performing well and the person who will best utilize your unique raid buffs.

Due to the randomness of the combo system, Dancer does not have a set rotation. The rotation is a combination of long-timer cooldown GCDs, resource management, and combo actions used as filler.

For the filler portion, there is a 50% chance each time either Fountain or Cascade is used that they will generate a proc (Silken Flow and Silken Symmetry, respectfully) that allows usage of either Fountainfall or Reverse Cascade.

Standard Step, Technical Step, Devilment, and Flourish are the four portions of the rotation that are, for the most part, immovable in their placement. Standard Step now procs a powerful GCD called Last Dance that is much stronger than your other GCDs, which makes using it as often as possible even more important. The position of these actions in the rotation is dictated by where they are placed in the opener. There is a small exception to this, but we will get into that a bit later.

Technical Finish, Devilment, and Flourish also come with their own procs in the form of Tillana, Starfall Dance, Finishing Move, Dance of the Dawn, and Fan Dance IV. These actions are part of your burst window and should be used within raid buffs to reach their maximum potential.

Flourish procs your Flourishing Flow and Flourishing Symmetry buffs.

The final aspect of the rotation is going to be your resources: Esprit and Fourfold Feathers.

Esprit is generated every time Dancer uses a combo action (five for Cascade/ Fountain and ten for Reverse Cascade/ Fountainfall). There is also a chance for 10 Esprit generation from anyone under the effect of Esprit every time they use a weaponskill or spell. This effect is either triggered by having Dance Partner while under the effect of Standard Finish or party members under the effect of Technical Finish. In addition, Tillana also gives 50 Esprit in Dawntrail. The Esprit, once you have collected 50 of it, can then be used on the action Saber Dance.

Fourfold Feathers have a 50% chance of being generated by using either Reverse Cascade or Fountainfall. This resource can then be spent on Fan Dance which, again, has a 50% chance to proc another ability called Fan Dance III. Using Flourish will also generate the proc on Fan Dance III.

Both of these resources can be held slightly for raid buff windows, but they should never be allowed to overcap. Esprit caps at 100 gauge while the Feathers cap at four.

To summarize and simplify...

• Cascade → Reverse Cascade
• Fountain → Fountainfall
• Technical Finish → Tillana
• Devilment → Starfall Dance
• Flourish → Fan Dance IV
• Reverse Cascade/ Fountainfall → Fan Dance → Fan Dance III
• Tillana

Considering everything we just discussed, putting it together to form an opener looks like this:

1. -15.5s Prepull Standard Step
2. -1.5s Prepull Grade 6 Tincture of Dexterity
3. Standard Finish
4. Technical Step
5. Technical Finish → Devilment
6. Tillana
7. Last Dance → Fan Dance III + Fan Dance IV
8. Starfall Dance → possible Fan Dance + Fan Dance III
9. Dance of the Dawn
10. Finishing Move
11. Saber Dance OR Fountainfall OR Reverse Cascade
12. Saber Dance OR Fountainfall OR Reverse Cascade
13. Saber Dance OR Fountainfall OR Reverse Cascade
14. Saber Dance OR Fountainfall OR Reverse Cascade

Listed below is a rough order of who to Dance Partner, from best to worst. Please keep in mind that this listing is assuming the same gear and skill level when being compared. It is also removing the consideration that certain fight mechanics and/or downtime can positively or negatively affect the rotations of certain jobs.

As of 7.05, the current general Dance Partner Priority at Level 100 is as follows:

Pictomancer / Samurai > Reaper / Viper / Monk / Ninja > Dragoon / Black Mage > Red Mage > Summoner > Machinist > Bard > Dancer

Please note that the Dance Partner Priority above is NOT updated for 7.1, and will not be until calculations have been done to confirm any changes in the priority due to expected job buffs to jobs such as Samurai and Black Mage.

As of right now, the The Dance Partner Calculator is still WIP for Dawntrail. Due to this, a specific Dance Partner priority can not be determined using it. Please check back later when we have more concrete information on which jobs are best to partner.

At a base Skill Speed of 2.50, Dancer's full rotation is 120 seconds long. Due to changes to Tillana in Dawntrail (it's recast was changed to a base of 2.50 rather than the 1.50 it was in Endwalker), Dancer no longer has the same skill speed considerations as it did before. Such, you will want to prioritize getting your GCD as close to 2.5 as possible.

The AoE combo actions keep the randomness that the single target rotation has. You will manage the same cooldowns and resources as you do in the single target rotation, but your combo actions and procs will be replaced with the AoE versions.

Your combo actions for AoE when there are three targets or more are Windmill and Bladeshower. These will proc the same Silken Flow and Silken Symmetry buffs that the single target action combos give you, but for AoE, you will spend them on two different GCDs. These are Rising Windmill and Bloodshower.

In addition to the change in what you spend your filler procs on, instead of using your Fourfold Feathers on Fan Dance, you will spend them on Fan Dance II instead of starting at two targets.

The usage of your other cooldowns will be similar to a single target rotation. You will spend Esprit on Saber Dance, but you will spend your Flourish procs on the AoE combo actions. Standard Step and Technical Step will be used on cooldown.

Being a support job, Dancer has a ton of utility they bring to the party. During an encounter, you will want to make sure you use these abilities to help out and support your party.

In addition to the support buffs already mentioned ( Closed Position, Standard Finish, Technical Finish, and Devilment), Dancer also has an AoE mitigation like the other physical ranged jobs in the form of Shield Samba. Keep in mind, Shield Samba will not stack with its counterparts, Tactician, and Troubadour. What sets Dancer apart from the other physical ranged is the healing tools at their disposal. Using them helps take the burden off of your party members while costing you nothing.

The first of these is Curing Waltz, an AoE heal that originates on yourself and your Dance Partner chosen by Closed Position. This powerful healing oGCD will heal any allies near you or your partner. Curing Waltz will heal the party twice if everyone is stacked with both you and your partner.

The other healing ability is Improvisation. This ability will heal all nearby allies with a small regen, and for every three seconds you are using it, you will gain a stack of Rising Rhythm. These stacks will then be used on Improvised Finish, which will give all nearby allies a barrier. This barrier will gain strength based on the number of Rising Rhythm stacks you have. It is important to note that Improvisation will be canceled upon the execution of any other action. It is worth weaving Improvised Finish solely for the regen, but outside of fight downtime, waiting for the stacks of Rising Rhythm is not worth it.